Like millions of others, we watched agog as Elon Musk revealed his plans to send thousands of people to Mars. But we couldn't help thinking that the main spaceship of his Interplanetary Transport System looks very familiar.
London's Gherkin skyscraper bears an uncanny resemblance to Musk's megarocket, right down to the diamond windows. Here's the view from the spaceship:
And here's a shot from the Gherkin's upper decks:
Below is a vision of people boarding Musk's rocket, ahead of a journey to Mars. The graphic looks remarkably like someone's slung a pedway between the Gherkin and Walkie Talkie building to connect their bars. Now wouldn't that be a good idea?
At this point, you're probably thinking we're clutching at straws. After all, any rocket's going to have a Gherkin-like nose, to help get it through Earth's atmosphere. But the thing is, we pre-empted Musk's rocket almost a decade ago. In 2007, we published this image by WJ Fox as part of a Photoshop competition:
That's three whole years before Musk's company SpaceX launched its first rocket, and nine years before he announced the interplanetary version. We're not saying that we gave Musk the idea, but when he plants his flag in the centre of Schiaparelli Crater, we'll be looking to get the exclusive filming rights.
